cience
without Borders is a Brazilian Government scholarship
programme which aims to send 100,000 Brazilian students on
undergraduate sandwich courses, PhD sandwich courses and full PhDs
to study in science, technology, engineering, mathematics
and creative industries at top universities around the
world. - See more at:
http://www.international.ac.uk/member-services/partnerships/science-without-borders.aspx#sthash.jYx9SxzR.dpuf
cience
without Borders is a Brazilian Government scholarship
programme which aims to send 100,000 Brazilian students on
undergraduate sandwich courses, PhD sandwich courses and full PhDs
to study in science, technology, engineering, mathematics
and creative industries at top universities around the
world. - See more at:
http://www.international.ac.uk/member-services/partnerships/science-without-borders.aspx#sthash.jYx9SxzR.dpuf
In 2011, the Brazilian government announced with great fanfare the scholarship program called Ciência sem Fronteiras (Science without Borders). The program is primarily funded by the Brazilian government,
with additional private sector support. From the Harvard page about this program: "Through this program, the Brazilian government seeks to strengthen and expand the initiatives of science and technology, innovation and competitiveness through the international mobility of undergraduate and graduate students and researchers. LASPAU [Harvard affiliation] is administering the scholarships of 500 Ph.D. level grantees annually on behalf of CAPES and CNPq and will place a total of 1,500 Brazilians in doctoral degree programs in the United States over a three-year period."
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Science without Borders is a Brazilian Government scholarship
programme which aims to send 100,000 Brazilian students on
undergraduate sandwich courses, PhD sandwich courses and full PhDs
to study in science, technology, engineering, mathematics
and creative industries at top universities around the
world.
This is great! I thought it great when it was announced and I still think it wonderful. An international interchange of math and science and technology. As I've said before, Brazil has some great minds but doesn't have the facility capacity to get them the education that they need. So, off these kids go to the USA, to Europe, to the UK. Fantastic.
Do you feel the "oops" coming? Here would be the first signal: the Brazilian government site in English about the program is poorly written. I am fairly sure they used google translate. Here is just one of the winner bullet points: "Institutional links - The clustering approach will also lead to the establishment of solid academic links between key institutions. Implementation following rigid standard" What does that actually mean? I think they forgot the second half of the second sentence.
So, it really came as no big surprise when I read last week that 110 scholarship students with Ciência Sem Fronteiras are returning to Brazil because they failed to have the required English proficiency. How had they gotten overseas without English proficiency? Because they had applied to study in Portugal. Unfortunately Portugal, being in a bad way, had cut all scholarships and the students were forced to try other universities in English-speaking countries. And failed, based on English language.
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| Where the students go, 2012. Now Portugal is gone. |
One of the great worries I have about Brazil's success on the world stage is the lack of English fluency. And it is one of the ones I keep quietest about so I don't risk sounding imperialist and holier-than-thou. It is my mother tongue, this English, but no matter how defensive you are, the fact is that it is now the world language of business and education. Sorry, Frenchies, I know how much you hate hearing that. You still are official at the Olympics, okay? Desolée...
Asia is kicking Brazilian butt. Of course they are kicking American butt too but there it has nothing to do with language. Talking with an education consultant last week in the US, he said that applications to elite boarding schools in the US are now 40% Asian. These schools would love to have more Latin Americans, in particular Brazilians (we are a rather large country down here) but they can't find enough who can speak English. What a shame.
I am myself working with a University of São Paulo professor to improve her conversational English. Because she has really important things to say, and I want Princeton, where she has been invited to speak, to hear it. And understand it. We have to improve the English, Brazil, and don't you dare get defensive on me. Call me imperialist first, but then you will need to call me right.
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